T.J. Stiles gets real with Gen. Custer

Updated 3:47 pm, Friday, September 20, 2013

Author and biographer T.J. Stiles is seen at the Presidio in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012.

Author and biographer T.J. Stiles is seen at the Presidio in San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

T.J. Stiles gets real with Gen. Custer

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People go round and round the Letterman lagoon, deep in contemplation, on a gray afternoon. One walker is deeply contemplating the 19th century. He is T. J. Stiles, 48, who lives in the Presidio of San Francisco.

Q:Describe your occupation.

A: I am a biographer. I try to write books that have scholarly merit and literary qualities as well.

A: I was stunned. What's interesting about the Pulitzer is that there is no buildup. It comes out of the blue all at once. I had just picked up my son from preschool in the Sunset and strapped him into his car seat. He fell sound asleep and my editor called with the news. My son was completely unimpressed.

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A: I'm writing a book about George Armstrong Custer. It's a great relief to write about someone who has been well-written-about before.

Q:Is there a procedure for relocating yourself into the 19th century?

A: You immerse yourself in as much of the nitty-gritty as possible. You have to have the confidence and sensibility of the times.

Q:If you stacked up all the books you've read for this project, how tall would it be?

A: It would be bigger than my house, which is two-story.

Q:What is there to say about Custer that hasn't been said?

A: He's almost always seen through these very specific aspects of his life - the Indian Wars and the Little Bighorn. I'm interested in how he reflected the way in which America was changing, because he helped to change America but he resisted it personally.

Q:How many years are you into it?

A: About three.

Q:When can we expect the finished product?

A: Probably in about two years.

Q:Where did you grow up?

A: Foley, Minnesota.

Q:What did your dad do?

A: He was the town doctor and county coroner.

Q:First job?

A: Mowing lawns or picking rocks. I lived in farm country, so there were a lot of odd jobs, like pouring concrete for hog pens.

Q:Last job?

A: Copy chief for advertising for Ballantine Books, in New York. I left that in 1999.

Q:Where do you live?

A: We live in old enlisted men's housing overlooking Baker Beach - my wife, Jessica; my son Dillon, who just turned 5; and my daughter Sasha, who just turned 1.

A: Joe's Ice Cream on Geary. I like their coconut, and cookies and cream.

Q:Have a pet?

A: We have a fish that my son named Pet Fish.

Q:Custer stuff up on the walls of your study?

A: No. I have mostly Vanderbilt stuff up. I see him as my patron saint. He secured my future by writing about him, so I have his portrait up on the wall.

Q:What kind of car do you drive?

A: We have a 200o Subaru Outback. We're a one-car family.

Q:If you weren't doing this, what would you do?

A: My avocation is practicing and teaching traditional Japanese karate, which I love. I have a small dojo in the Inner Richmond and teach a couple of times a week.

Q:What would surprise people to know about you?

A: People I know from karate are very surprised to know that I'm a Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning biographer. People who know me from the writing world have no idea that I teach karate.

Q:Describe your hair style?

A: Close-cropped. I get it cut by the wonderful May of May's Barber Shop at 18th and Geary. Same place where Rodes Fishburn, another San Francisco writer, gets his hair cut.

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